NOVA Entertainment has released the Podcasting Intelligence Report, in partnership with Acast and international research company Ispsos.

Nova commissioned the report - the largest Australian study of its kind - to explore the rapid rise of podcasting in Australia and the importance of the medium for brands.

This study comes off the back of the recently released PricewaterhouseCoopers Australian Entertainment & Media Outlook 2018-2022 industry forecast report, which also cited growth in consumption and advertising revenue for podcasting.

The study’s key findings addressed the value of the Australian podcast audience, motivations for listening and how advertisers can most effectively make new audience connections.

Kate Murphy, NOVA’s National Commercial Strategy Director, CREATE said, “The Podcasting Intelligence Report presents an opportunity to deepen the conversation around the potency of podcasting for advertisers in Australia with proprietary research based on local market needs and local data.

"To date, podcast research has relied largely on global data, with a focus on awareness and consumption, which is just one part of the story.

"We saw the potential in exploring a more detailed view of the podcast audience, their motivations for listening and the opportunity that presents for brands.”

Henrik Isaksson, Acast's Australian General Manager said, "Globally, Acast is a data-driven business. Doing this research to better understand and serve the local Australian market alongside Nova has been great.

"The industry is growing and expanding rapidly and developing metrics to measure that growth over time and will be the key to podcasting's longevity here."

The Podcasting Intelligence Report shows that podcasting has become the fastest growing on-demand audio medium, with 3.5 million podcast listeners from the ages of 16-64, representing one in four Australians in that age bracket.

Importantly for brands, the report indicates this scale is continuing to rise, with 20% of current podcasters new to the platform over the past six months, and 21% of current listeners listening more than they were 12 months ago.

The Report shows that 49% of podcast listeners are more likely to influence those around them and have a higher discretional spend on key categories such as retail, travel and entertainment.

Advertising delivered by the podcast host was also found to be most effective in capturing audience attention and driving brand recall with listeners twice as likely to trust the message that host-read ads deliver.

The Podcasting Intelligence Report involved a robust sample size of Australians who represent the general population of listeners across the audio landscape and included a mix of regular, light, lapsed, non and future podcast consumers.

NOVA Entertainment is currently presenting findings of the Podcasting Intelligence Report to agencies and advertisers.